The provincial legislature on Tuesday recommended to the
Punjab and federal governments to outlaw 'wani', a tribal custom under which
the girls of a family have to pay for the sin of their male members.
A resolution unanimously adopted by the house said that member of any so-called
jury ordering 'compensatory' marriages should be awarded five years rigorous
imprisonment.
A case of 'wani' had taken place in southern Punjab while another was averted
with the intervention of the Supreme Court.
The resolution against the abhorrent system had been tabled by PML-Q's Humaira
Owais Shahid.
Another resolution said the Punjab government call upon the federal government
to issue official passports to the MPAs and all their family members, as was
the case with the MNAs.
Law Minister Raja Basharat did not oppose it, and thus it was adopted within no
time.
PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah Khan warned that official passports issued in such
large numbers would make the document worthless, or bring it on a par with the
ordinary passport.
The question of issuing special number plates for the vehicles owned by the
legislators also briefly came under discussion at the session.
The law minister said the matter could be decided by the house committee. A
member pointed out that in Sindh, legislators had been issued special number
plates for their vehicles.
Another resolution urged the provincial government to recommend to the Centre
that residents of Shahdara should be exempted from toll tax charged at the Ravi
bridge. This exemption had been withdrawn in 1999. It said that special passes
should be issued to the Shahdara residents to enable them to avail of the
concession.
Yet another resolution was moved demanding that the amount of educational
scholarships being paid to the children of civil servants out of the benevolent
fund in one year should now be considered for one month.
Food Minister Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal said he would settle the matter with the
mover.
Opposition MPAs Rana Aftab Ahmed Khan, Sheikh Amjad Aziz, Muhammad Nawaz Malik,
Rana Mashood Ahmed Khan and Jehanzeb Imtiaz moved an adjournment motion that
the procedure for the recovery of defaulted loans adopted by the Punjab Small
Industries Corporation was in conflict with the instructions given by the State
Bank of Pakistan. This amounted to "Two systems in one state".
Industries Minister Ajmal Cheema said the PSIC had nothing to do with the SBP.
He said industrialists facing problems could pay the principal plus 20 per cent
in interest to have the remaining amount of interest waived.
All matters, he said, could be examined on a case-to-case basis.